Performing vs. giving God your best

When I’m on stage leading worship, I try to focus on offering to God the best of my musical abilities. I don’t want to offer a half-heartedly sung song. I want to put everything I have into it and not hold back. It’s my gift to God and it should be the best it can be.

When I’m out in the audience, it can feel like American Idol. It’s big, it’s flashy, it’s showing off. The guitar riffs and the vocal divas can give me headaches.

There’s a fine line between performing and worshipping.  When I am up front leading, are people wondering the same thing about me; why am I turning worship into a production?

I believe God wants our best, no matter what our gift may be. Some of us have been given musical gifts and we need to offer them back to God like everyone else. So in singing/playing/leading worship, that’s what we try to do.

Where is that fine line? At what point does our worship turn into a performance, a production? What if my heart is in the right place, but someone in the audience perceives it as a production? What if my “performance” obstructs someone else’s worship? Is that my problem or theirs? Do I tone it down for them, or is it something they need to work on? I don’t want to get in the way of someone’s worship, but I don’t want to give God something half-hearted.

I’ve struggled with this for years. I’ve known musicians who love Jesus with all their heart lead worship. At some point in the worship leading, it shifts to performance, at least in my eyes. As they’re up there lost in the Spirit, I’m lost in the congregation, shifting uncomfortably. When they’re done, people say things like, “Wasn’t that SO spirit filled? What amazing worship!”

The best I can sometimes offer is, “Meh…”

So then I feel like a bad Christian for not getting into the worship that was a little too showy for my taste.

I really have no answers on this one. Take out all the stage lights and fog machines because, honestly, they’re just too much? Go back to organ music because it’s less pretentious? (I went to a classically trained music school… organ music can definitely be pretentious… so that’s not a good answer.) Stick to simple acoustic songs because they’re less showy?

I wish I had a better idea to offer, but this is probably my biggest worship struggle. Anyone else have any good ideas?

9 Replies to “Performing vs. giving God your best”

  1. Hmmm.. If someone in the congregation is out there judging whether or not you’re worshiping (or leading worship) the right way, who is doing it wrong? You or them? Ultimately, what matters is your own motivation for what you are doing. Check out Psalm 150. That, to me, looks like the Old Testament equivalent to rocking out for God. The wording, to me, seems to suggest something flashy and loud.

    1. Thanks for that Scripture. Resounding cymbals does seem to suggest flashy and loud. Hadn’t thought about that.

      This is just one of those touchy subjects that continually trips me up.

      1. Hey, its difficult to tread the line between performance and worship, especially with a medium that, in every other place except Church, is performance. Period. I assure you I’m guilty of jumping over the line and standing squarely on the performance side. Last Sunday at night of praise, I was drumming. We had all kinds of technical difficulties. While our music minister was totally humble and gracious about it and laughed it off, I found myself getting angry – probably because my performance was being affected. I have to be REALLY careful since prior to attending church, drumming was ALWAYS about making myself look cool. I have to remind myself that I am supposed to be worshiping. When I can get my attitude right and geared toward worship, I actually play better!

        BTW, I want to thank you for this blog. While SCL has been my survival guide to church, in the short time I’ve been reading this blog, it had become a good reminder to check my motives as I become more involved in church activities. Keep up the great posts!

  2. Sounds like you are thinking a lot about you and about what everyone else thinks. Maybe that’s the problem. Jim likes to ask “What is it in me that is causing me to react this way?”

    Thanks for letting me share.

  3. I understand exactly what you’re saying, Jamie. I guess all we can do is be responsible for what’s in our own hearts, though. It’s so easy to slip into a performance mode. I’ve used a little phrase over the years to get myself back on track — I remind myself “to bless and not impress”. This can be helpful in many areas of life.

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